Category: Blog

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New Album Review

“New Shapes” by Charli XCX Track Review

"New Shapes" Track Review

Charli XCX has had a very interesting career trajectory. She first really came into public consciousness on the hook of an Icona Pop song and stayed in the mainstream radio friendly sphere for some time, crafting hits like “Boom Clap” that are still her most popular songs to this day. But for a solid five years now she’s almost been a brand ambassador for hyperpop, the experimental candy coated shock to the system that has seen a massive rise in popularity recently. For me, her music was a gateway into this world, and her last two albums, 2019’s “Charli” and “how i’m feeling now”, a meditation on the pandemic that was equal parts reflective and cathartic, were each my favorite albums of their respective years.

On Thursday, November 4, she kicked off the rollout of her upcoming album, “CRASH”, set to release in March of 2022 and with an accompanying tour. “New Shapes” is the second single off this project, and already it’s clear that the album will be a shift in style from her previous work. “Good Ones”, the first single, was an 80s-inspired pop rumination on lost love accompanied by an aesthetic straight out of that decade, down to her permed hair on the washed out album cover. I thoroughly enjoyed this song and have listened to it a lot since its release, but in a lot of ways it felt like a step back from the highs of “how i’m feeling now”, less adventurous both sonically and lyrically.

Which finally brings me to “New Shapes”. Part of the reason I took this long to talk about the actual three and a half minutes of music was because the context is very important to its appreciation. There are a lot of elements I really like. Charli’s vocal performance is great, and the minimal instrumental really sits back and puts her center stage. I love the quiet but still very present synths occasionally punctuating the track and adding some nice flair. Christine and the Queens, who are Charli XCX feature royalty thanks to her amazing work on “Gone”, are here and put in a great verse to keep the song chugging along.

There were a few elements, though, that drag the song down. The chorus is both too long and somewhat weak for the climax it’s built to be, the concept of loving “in new shapes” is a bit vague and the song could generally use a more clear direction. And while I love Caroline Polacheck’s music (and her amazing set at Hopscotch earlier this year), her feature on the third verse here was just not it. It wasn’t entirely her fault, the instrumental just completely recedes into the background, but her lines were just very awkward and it lacked the sharp edges of recent work like the absolute bop that was “Bunny is a Rider”.

And that’s my biggest frustration with this song. On its own merits it’s fine, good even, but as a Charli XCX song with big name features? It just doesn’t reach the standard her last few albums have forged through their inventive production and just by being a unique voice in a very crowded field. I’ll never forget listening to “claws” for the first time and being blown away by the energy on that track, but I don’t know if I’ll be revisiting “New Shapes” next week, much less next year. I’m still very excited to hear the full album, but it’s a different kind of excitement then I had going into her last few releases, more of how I anticipate a Marvel movie than an Oscar contender. Oh I’ll have fun with it, and take away some memories, but if “New Shapes” is an indication of the direction of the project, I won’t be blown away, and that’s something I had been getting used to from her music.

-Erie

Categories
New Album Review

Album Review: “Queens of the Summer Hotel” by Aimee Mann

Queens of the Summer Hotel album cover
Album cover of"Queens of the Summer Hotel" by Aimee Mann

As fellow WKNC DJ Snapdragon remarked recently, the weather is no longer cute. It’s getting pretty wintery here in the Triangle, but if you’re looking for an album to hit that sweet cozy spot and make it feel like fall for forty minutes, “Queens of the Summer Hotel” is a sleeper pick.

It achieves this cozy aura by managing to capture the feel of an old record perfectly. This goes beyond the vintage-style album cover or the pianos and strings that are straight out of a 1950s living room, but in the subject matter as well. “Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath” shows a snapshot of the titular pair walking “together down the primrose path” and slowly peels the layers away to detail their downfall. A certain Vermeer painting anchors the experiences of the characters in “At the Frick Museum”, while “You Could Have Been a Roosevelt” reminisces on legions of women who are entering a world that doesn’t treat them as an equal, equating it to being born in the wrong US political dynasty. These references act like a familiar blanket for the listener, while the subject matter isn’t always pleasant there is a sense of belonging that keeps you hooked.

When trying to capture a particular time period or style, it’s important to not get lost in the aesthetic and make a piece of art that can stand on its own, and “Queens” never loses sight of this. These settings are a backdrop for universal concepts of complicated romance and how life becomes very different as you grow up, all from an explicit focus on feminism and gender roles in a wider society. It doesn’t pull its punches with social critiques either. “Give Me Fifteen” is an unsettling narrative about a doctor who threatens women with “electroshock”, a stand-in for a broken system that grinds away at mental health and creates a cure that is often worse than the disease. Make no mistake, this is not a happy album, and if unflinching ruminations on mental illness is something that you don’t think you can handle, steer clear. But the way this all comes together creates a curiously warm tone that remains reflective, the quintessential fall vibe.

My first experience with Aimee Mann’s music was seeing her in a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode where she made a cameo as part of a vampire band and played one of her songs, “Pavlov’s Bell”. It’s been several decades now since that episode came out, but something that struck me when I listened to “Queens of the Summer Hotel” was how much of what made her music from that era work is present here, even in this less-guitar based form. Her commanding vocal presence and ability to take listeners on a journey haven’t wavered, and if you’re a fan of Aimee Mann’s earlier work, definitely give this one a shot.

-Erie

Categories
Blog

North Carolina Writers’ Network- An Interview With Cat Warren

Dr. Warren stands with a German Shepard in the woods
Image Courtesy of Cat Warren

The North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall 2021 Conference will be held in Durham November 19-21. This is an opportunity for aspiring writers to hone their skills and work with a variety of professional writers. Registration is open through Friday November 12th. Today, I’d like to turn your attention to one particular conference led by retiring NCSU Professor Cat Warren, “To Tell the Truth.” I sat down with Cat to talk about her career and presentation this Sunday, you will be able to find that interview on our “Off The Record,” interview podcast series here in a few days, but for now, here are a few highlights.

Her Book and Creative Non-Fiction

Q: How has your career as a journalist and as a professor teaching science writing informed your creative non-fiction book “What the Dog Knows,” [a book detailing her work training cadaver dogs while on hiatus from the university]?

A: Well, environmental science writing has always been in my wheelhouse. My father was a fisheries biologist and studying water pollution was his jam. I kind of grew up in the country, and that connection between science, and dogs, and essentially crime fit. Because, when I was a reporter, crime and courts where part of my natural beat, so having those things come together made a lot of sense. And also, when I looked at the work I was doing, I realized that with [training] the dog, it was really about science. It made me wonder, what do we really know?

The North Carolina Writers’ Network

Q: Tell us a bit about what people can expect from your workshop on creative non-fiction at the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

A: I’m actually working on some of the presentation right now, and part of the concept of this is that many people who are part of the conference are writers of fiction. But not all of them. One of the things I learned early on as a reporter, is that everything, every piece of writing that people are going to invest their time in. The question of wanting to know what happens next, it’s so central to any fiction or non-fiction writing. People don’t have to pick up a book, magazine, or newspaper, they aren’t obligated to look it up on they’re not obligated to keep reading. I really think John McPhee said it best, “When you write non-fiction, your entry has to be a flashlight that leads into your story.” So I’ve been thinking about that and another then McPhee said which is that, when you’re writing fiction, certain techniques will just be so obvious, “Oh, that’s just a harlequin romance, or that’s just a cheaply written thriller.” But when you bring these same techniques to non-fiction, they end up working extremely well, because it’s the truth. And there are so many writers who do this, you add story and narrative to something that really happened, and I want to highlight those writers. And we’ll also then do some exercises where we’ll say “Okay, here’s the plot of a romance novel, and here’s some non-fiction facts, take fifteen minutes and write a quick romance.”

Journalism In The Digital Age

Q: How do you try to prepare your students for a modern career?

A: You know, I think its extraordinarily difficult when you have super creative passionate students where you’re essentially saying to them: “look, you’re probably not going to get a job as a full-time journalist.” And so what do you do? How do you prepare students for what is inevitably a really tough economy. A world that is filled with uncertainty. The inevitability that students are going to have, not just one or two or three jobs, but many jobs over the course of their careers. I think that there’s not real way to prepare people for a world that looks like this. The best you do is you understand that people are resilient, and this generation is having to be especially resilient, and especially flexible. Between, you know, climate change, and democracy being undermined, and jobs not really being guranteed anymore… So what do you say? You say that the mind is a marvelously plastic thing, and there are ways to do and find things that you love. I look at careers that students have, sort of gerrymandered for themselves, and I’m really impressed.

Categories
Miscellaneous

My Music Wishlist

Handwritten text that reads "Music Wishlist" in black ink. The word music is surrounded by a hot pink blob colored by marker, and the word wishlist is surrounded by a purple blob also colored by marker. This has a white border and then two hot pink borders varying in shade

It is nearly the holiday season, so I’ve been brainstorming gifts to get for my loved ones as well as items I may want for myself. But there are some things that I want that can’t be fulfilled by a gift wrapped up in a box, and most of those things are weird music concepts. Like for example, how is one supposed to ask for a Taylor Swift cover of the entire “XO” album by Elliott Smith? I’ve deemed these things my music wishlist, and I’d like to share it with you all.

The following is my music wishlist:

  • For the band Rilo Kiley to get back together and tour
  • A Fiona Apple Tour
  • For me to be able to see every artist I like in an intimate venue
  • Concert tickets to be less expensive
  • A Maggie Rogers and Phoebe Bridgers collaborative album
  • A time machine to see old artists/bands at their prime
  • A Taylor Swift “Hot Ones” Interview
  • “All I Wanted” by Paramore to be performed live
  • Fiona Apple to cover the entire “Let It Be” album by The Beatles
  • A Frank Ocean Tour

There are legitimate reasons that most (if not all) of these things will never happen, but, in my dream world, those barriers wouldn’t exist. Do you have any music-related pipe dreams that’ll probably never happen?

Happy dreaming,

Caitlin

Categories
New Album Review

“Any Shape You Take”: New Album Review

ALBUM: “Any Shape You Take” by Indigo De Souza

LABEL: Saddle Creek

RATING: 10/10

BEST TRACKS: “Pretty Pictures” “Real Pain” “Die/Cry”

FCC: None

Let me preface this entire review by saying that this album is my personal album of the year, at least thus far, and in my opinion, Indigo De Souza has yet to have a miss in her entire discography. Her sophomore album, “Any Shape You Take”  was released on August 27 of this year. The record is ten songs long and has a run-time of 38 minutes, an ideal length for an album.

In regard to collaboration, the album was co-produced by De Souza and Brad Cook (Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel also have production credits). As far as songwriting goes, Owen Stone has a songwriting credit on two songs and Jake Lenderman has a credit on one. 

As a listener, I am lyricism focused, and this album’s biggest strength (although it has little to no weaknesses) are its lyrics. It very much has the honest detailed songwriting that has been emphasized in artists like Phoebe Bridgers as of late. However, De Souza juxtaposes this with repetition of phrases over and over again, that often turn into plea-like shouts. It makes for a dynamic and wonderful listening experience. As I often do in my album reviews, here is a list of just a few of my favorite lyrics from this album.

  • “Do you see me when you’re sleeping? / Do you even shut your eyes at night?” — “Die/Cry”
  • “I promise you I’ll always grow with you / And if my promise ever slips just trust I’ll have the heart to quit / I know when I am better off a friend” — “Pretty Pictures”
  • “I see you in colors, in reds and in oranges / But you can’t color me in fear” — “Way Out”
  • “Dirty the dishеs, stack them higher / We’rе not gonna wash them / We’ll throw them away / Kill me slowly, outside that diner / That we liked to go to / When things were okay”— “Kill Me”

This album is exactly what I needed this year. Other releases were somewhat lackluster, and I was losing hope in having an album I really enjoyed come out this year, but this North Carolina based artist flipped the script.

Happy listening, 

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

It’s Fall, Y’all (November)

Brown background image with red and orange leaves overlayed with text that reads "it's fall y'all" in the upper left hand corner and "88.1 WKNC" in the bottom left hand corner

Now that it’s November, it’s time for me to give you the third and final installment of the “it’s fall, y’all” playlist. September’s theme was folk and acoustic sounds, October’s was haunted and synth-y for Halloween, and I’m happy to finally share with you what November’s theme is. 

These fifteen songs are jazz and blues themed. Although somewhat different genres, I decided to make the first bit of the playlist jazzy and the last couple of songs blues in order to tie it back to the folkiness of September’s theme. I hope these songs remind you of cold rainy days, warm fuzzy socks and twinkling street lights.

Without further ado, here are the final fifteen songs of “it’s fall, y’all.”

  • “I Fall In Love Too Easily” — Chet Baker
  • “The Starlit Hour” — Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra
  • “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” — Vince Guaraldi
  • “Some Enchanted Evening” — Etta Jones
  • “You Are Special” — Johnny Costa
  • “Nostalgia in Times Square” — Mingus Big Band
  • “Sleepin’ Bee” — Tommy Flanagan
  • “Don’t Smoke In Bed” — Nina Simone
  • “Lilac Wine” — Eartha Kitt
  • “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home – Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1958” — Louis Armstrong
  • “Happy Ending” — Sammy Davis Jr.
  • “Let It Be” — Bill Withers
  • “A Sunday Kind Of Love” — Etta James
  • “Mary Had A Little Lamb” — Buddy Guy
  • “Little Red Rooster” — Willie Dixon

I hope this playlist carries you through the rest of this Autumn and for all of the future ones to come. As always, I’ve made it into a Spotify playlist for your enjoyment.

Happy Listening,

Caitlin

Categories
New Album Review

Dochii: Oh The Places You’ll Go Album Review

Dochii Oh the Places You'll Go Album Cover

Alright my recommendations feed has come up with something great. It’s a rare occasion that the algorithm will promote someone without a lot of industry weight behind them, but Dochii is the exception because I had no idea who this woman is, and she’s left a relatively thin paper trail online. So, let’s take a look at this new force in underground rap, and her introductory album “Oh The Places You’ll Go.”

The obvious starting place for Dochii is the song “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” (yes I know, just bear with me). The song literally starts with a teacher asking her to introduce herself to the class, straight up “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” style. This is an extremely well-worn cliché, and you better be at the top of your game if you add something new this way. Fortunately for Dochii, she is. Beyond the persona and content of lyrics, there’s no getting around the fact that Dochii is just a technically masterful rapper. This album is based around Dr. Seuss, and her flows are accordingly very fragmented and sing-songy, but the song never becomes stale. She switches between rhythmic patterns, tempos, and dynamics at such breakneck speed that one medium length song feels like full ep, giving a full impression of her range, personality, and life story through little more than the bread and butter of hip-hop.

The album’s simplicity is a thematic force as well. The ep is centered around school and childhood, hence the Dr. Seuss stuff. Again, comparisons to both Lauryn Hill and about 30 other rapppers are inveitable, but Dochii remains her own person through these well-worn topics. One of the album’s most creative choices is the decision to write and perform from the perspective of an actual tween. Dochii isn’t so much reflecting back on her childhood years so much as performing from an entirely separate character.

If there’s one complaint I have with this album, it’s the interludes. The ep is extremely short, so loading the tracklist down even further with spoken word, found sound, and other skits really makes the pace drag between the actual songs. While I’m the last person to recommending skipping tracks on albums, this is probably a situation where skipping is appropriate.

Dochii is a great addition to underground hip-hop, and while I can’t make any crystal ball predictions about her career, I can only dream of the “Places She’ll Go,” in the future. Take a listen to this new artist, she’s worth your time.

Categories
DJ Highlights

Halloween History with dj mozzie

Howdy y’all! Halloween has some of the best holiday music around, and I wanted to write a bit about the history of the holiday and the music! Halloween originated from the Celtic festival named Samhain, which was celebrated in ancient Britain and Ireland. Ancient Celts believed that November 1st marked a new year, and that the souls of those who had died would revisit their homes the night before. People took part in rituals and practices to try and scare away these spirits, like lighting bonfires or wearing masks to be unrecognizable to the spirits. Today, we still dress up in costume, but it is not to scare spirits away. 

Halloween music has that spine-shivering feeling because of the use of dissonance and minor chords. In the Middle Ages, they referred to this as the “Devil’s interval.” The Devil’s interval was an augmented 4th interval and was banned in Renaissance church music because of its association with evil. This interval can be heard in the opening of Danse Macabre. Part of the reason high-pitched nonlinear noise and dissonance in music is seen as scary is because of the association we’ve given it with scary movies. The other reason is because these sounds remind us of animal distress sounds. In the 20th century, blues was associated with the devil because of the secularity of the lyrics. A lot of blues music reflected the experiences of oppression Black Americans faced. Blues artists were accused of selling their soul for success and talent. Blues music uses the blues scale, which features a flat fifth note. This scale creates a similar interval to that of the devil’s interval.

One of my favorite Halloween songs, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” (1956) was part of this labeling of “the devil’s music.” Halloween specific songs did not come out until the 1950s-1960s. After this, Halloween music moved to the rock realm, with hits like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” The 1970s and 1980s was the peak for Halloween horror music from films. These years were also when cult classic horror films were being released. 

Now, here is my Halloween playlist to get you ready for the best holiday of the year!

  1. I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
  2. Halloween by Phoebe Bridgers 
  3. The Way Some People Die by Yo La Tengo
  4. Strange Things by Marlon Williams
  5. Ghosting by Mother Mother
  6. You’re Dead by Norma Tanega
  7. Hudson by Vampire Weekend
  8. Season of the Witch by Donovan (was mentioned in last week’s blog, but you can’t have a halloween playlist without it!)
  9. House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals 
  10. Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo

<3 dj mozzie

Categories
Weekly Charts

Daytime Charts 11/2

Film School album cover
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1FILM SCHOOLWe Weren’t HereSonic Ritual
2LAVA LA RUEButter-fly [EP]Marathon
3ILLUMINATI HOTTIESLet Me Do One MoreSnack Shack Tracks/Hopeless
4ILLISMFamily Over EverythingThe CRWN
5CHURCH GIRLSStill BloomsAnchor Eighty Four
6JPEGMAFIALP!EQT / Republic
7LITTLE SIMZSometimes I Might Be IntrovertAGE 101
8GUSTAFAudio Drag For Ego SnobsRoyal Mountain
9LALA LALAI Want The Door To OpenHardly Art
10STRANDEDMidnight SunDouble Phantom
11AUDIOBOOKSAstro ToughHeavenly/PIAS
12FJAAKSYS03 [EP]Self-Released
13JOSE GONZALEZLocal ValleyMute
14ODONIS ODONISSpectrumsFelte
15INJURY RESERVEBy The Time I Get To PhoenixSelf-Released
16NYLON SMILE“Conduit” b/w “We Don’t Need A Reason” [Single]Self-Released
17ZEBRA KATZLess Is MoorZFK
18TYLER THE CREATORCALL ME IF YOU GET LOSTColumbia
19PLANET GIZADon’t Throw Rocks At The Moon [EP]Self-Released
20SHYGIRLALIAS [EP]Because
21GENESIS OWUSUSmiling With No TeethHouse Anxiety/Ourness
22EVIDENCEUnlearning Vol. 1Rhymesayers
23JULIA SHAPIROZorkedSuicide Squeeze
24SKIIFALL“Ting Tun Up” [Single]Self-Released
25WEDNESDAYTwin PlaguesOrindal
26HOVVDYTrue LoveGrand Jury
27HELVETIAEssential AliensJoyful Noise
28IDLES“The Beachland Ballroom” [Single]Partisan
29LOWHEY WHATSub Pop
30MCKINLEY DIXONFor My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like HerSpacebomb

Daytime Adds

#ArtistAlbumLabel
1PARQUET COURTSSympathy For LifeRough Trade
2BLACK MARBLEFast IdolSacred Bones
3SPRINTSManifesto [EP]Nice Swan
4NATION OF LANGUAGE“The Grey Commute” [Single]Play It Again Sam
5LIILYTV Or Not TVFlush
6CUFFED UPAssymetryRoyal Mountain
7SADGIRL“Goodbye Queenie” [Single]Hard Feelings
8DENDRONS“Same Spot” [Single]Earth Libraries
9TOD LIPPYYearbookSelf-Released
10GOOD MORNINGBarnyardPolyvinyl
Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 11/2

Illism Family Over Everything Album Cover
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1ILLISMFamily Over EverythingThe CRWN
2LAVA LA RUEButter-fly [EP]Marathon
3LITTLE SIMZSometimes I Might Be IntrovertAGE 101
4MCKINLEY DIXONFor My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like HerSpacebomb
5SHADTAOSecret City
6COMMONA Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2Loma Vista/Concord
7SKIIFALL“Ting Tun Up” [Single]Self-Released
8TYLER THE CREATORCALL ME IF YOU GET LOSTColumbia
9EVIDENCEUnlearning Vol. 1Rhymesayers
10GENESIS OWUSUSmiling With No TeethHouse Anxiety/Ourness